The Radiance
by ChemiCool
Summary: Team Urameshi continues to battle forces of the demon world in a new adventure with a new demon on their side. Pasts are intertwined and unraveled as a force in the demon world known as the Radiance is set free by a human, but for what purpose? Only one thing is certain, the Radiance is dangerous and puts the gang in a unusual position compared to their other adventures.


A gentle breeze blew by in the human world on a sunny day, ruffling the leaves on a tall tree as well as the hair of the figure sitting in said tree. Hiei was waiting and his copper eyes glanced at the window of the home closest to him. The fire demon sighed, "Sleeping all day." He muttered to himself rolling his eyes before jumping over to the window and easily sliding it open without making a sound. His gaze adjusted to the darkened room and eventually landed on the slow rise and fall of a figure sleeping in a bed. "Hey," he said, walking over and toeing at the blanket, "Wake up." He watched at the figure didn't move at all before moving to kneel next to the bed and reaching to try to shake the person awake. "Kiei!" he was a little louder as he spoke the female's name and as the male shook her she started to fidget pushing him off.

Kiei groaned a little, starting to sit up and as she did so the blanket fell down to reveal that she was wearing nothing but her underwear. Groggily she rubbed at her eyes before blinking up at the person to wake her before suddenly remembering herself. "HIEI!" she exclaimed as she grabbed at the blanket and covered herself. Hiei blinked and glanced away, "Not that it matters." He rolled his eyes, but kept his gaze averted with a small smirk on his face. The female's purple eyes stared at him and she sighed grabbing at a shirt to throw on. "What are you doing here so early?" she asked him as she slipped out from beneath her blanket with the shirt managing to cover most of her up. Hiei scoffed a little, "It's not early, you're late." The demoness looked confused before glancing at a clock and her eyes grew wide, "Oh why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" She scampered into the bathroom and rushed to get ready.

In mere moments the demon was standing in the room dressed in her usual attire. A pair of black pants that were fitted and tucked into a pair of boots with silver buckles on them adorned her lower half. On her upper body a dark purple, long sleeved undershirt covered most of her skin with a black corset wrapped around her midsection. She reached up and brushed her black hair from her eyes as she glanced at Hiei. "Hand me my sword," she said to him and he tossed the sword across the room before moving to pick something else up. Kiei caught her sword in a flash before tying the weapon around her waist and moving to the window. "Let's go," she said, but the end of her statement was cut off as Hiei appeared in front of her and moved to tie a necklace around her neck. "Wouldn't want to go anywhere without that would you?" he asked her only to get a chuckle in surprise before the female leaned in to give him a short peck on the cheek. The pair made short eye contact before jumping out the window and running to the spirit detective's house for this little meeting to get started.

* * *

Yusuke was pacing around his room irritated that the fire demon's were late because Botan wouldn't tell them anything without them being there. "Where the hell are they!?" he yelled angrily, knowing his mother was out so he didn't need to be quiet, not that that would have stopped him. "Just calm down Yusuke," Kurama sighed from his place leaning against the wall. Kuwabara rolled his eyes, "Would be like the little punks to hold everything up." His tone was riddled with attitude as he sat on the floor clearly as irritated as Yusuke that the last of the team wasn't there. Though they were only waiting a few more minutes as Yusuke continued his pacing as Hiei and Kiei walked into the room.

"Finally!" Yusuke yelled at the pair only to receive glares in return as Hiei moved to stand near the window while Kiei sat on the bed. "Shut it loud mouth," the dark haired woman hissed at him. "Can we just get on with the mission information?" Botan said, sweating a little as tensions rose even more in the room. Yusuke opened his mouth to speak again, but thought better on it and crossed his arms, staring at the blue-haired female expectantly. "Okay! There is a group of demons that call themselves The Radiance-," she started before being cut off my Kuwabara, "We already took care of those radiant beasts didn't we?" Kurama put his head in his hand before Yusuke responded with, "You're an idiot, shut up." The redheaded human looked confused and grumbled as Botan continued, "Anyway, they have been under control for years, frozen really, but unfortunately the crystals that controlled their prisons were stolen." Kiei rose suddenly with a sound of disapproval, "What!?" She looked a little panicked and began following Yusuke's previous pacing pattern.

The other's glanced at each other confused before Botan found her voice, "Do you know these guys?" Kurama managed to speek before Kiei could, "She was to become one of them a long time ago." He seemed to have a bit of a sad expression on his face as he mentioned it causing Kiei to stop pacing. A little bit of silence passed, "I had no idea, so I guess you might be better at explaining about them?" Botan said nervously not sure if this was good or not. "Yes, I spent time with Kurama or Yoko at the time, but we parted ways as you know. I found my way to the demons known as the Radiance and they offered to make me stronger," she explained, "They aren't to be underestimated. They were beaten once by chance, their leader isn't a stupid or weak man." The other's grew serious as she explained what she knew about them and Kurama was the next to speak, "She would know, she was particularly close to the man." Kiei casted a warning glance at Kurama before continuing, "Though before I could become one of them they were defeated and I left. There isn't much to tell other than that they are strong and we should be concerned."

"Yes, well not only that," Botan decided to cut in, "The crystals have some power over them still and whoever stole them surely has a plan." She was yet again cut off, this time by Yusuke, "Alright, so we go in and bam knock 'em around to get information and find out who it is." Botan frowned and shook her head, "It's not that easy, word has it a human stole the crystals, a human that knows more than they should. We don't know if they have a deal with the demons or not, so things are different. You need to infiltrate and gain information before making a move. When you do…it might be best to just do them in honestly." Her voice was grave and Kiei as well as Kurama nodded in agreement. "How many do we need to take care of?" Hiei spoke up for the first time. "Seven," Kiei and Botan said in unison then Botan continued, "I believe Kurama knows of a way for you all to blend into the demon realm which will be a very important part of this mission." Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged looks as Kurama nodded, "I will get to work."

* * *

"So, we have to wear these stupid pendants cause we don't want any demons unveiling who we are…because…?" Yusuke complained as he sat with his hands behind his head on his bed. They had been waiting for a little while as Kurama worked on their disguises. "We need to get information out of them, weren't you listening?" Kiei growled irritated, "You four are so well recognized in the demon world that they will surely know who you are. I know them and will probably be the one who stops them from killing you." She rubbed her temple having explained this twice to Kuwabara and now a third time to Yusuke. "I just don't like the idea of getting close to them," he said to which the dark haired female responded, "Well we need too." She moved away to where Hiei was posted at the window and he glanced at her. "Not too close," Hiei gave her a look as he spoke quietly, " I saw the look you gave Kurama." She stared at him for a moment, "I have no desire to go back to that life."

"I hope not. It would seem Kurama knows much more about you than anyone."

"Well I spent years with him honing my thieving skills."

"You're sure that's it?"

"Of course," Kiei said quietly, though there was something off about her tone before they were distracted by the sound of Kurama alerting them to him being finished. Hiei moved from the window while Kiei continued staring out the window. He, Yusuke, and Kuwabara put on the pendants that they were handed. Light swirled in the room and when it cleared the appearance of the demons and humans who now wore pendants changed to give the appearance that they were different kinds of demons. "Our powers remain the same, so we should refrain from using anything trademark that may give us away," Kurama said with a small smile as he looked over the others. Kuwabara and Yusuke stared at each other, trying to figure out how they were going to remember each other. "This is so weird," Yusuke said not sounding all that happy about it. "Whatever gets the job done," Hiei said closing his eyes for a second before glancing over at Kiei at the sound of a sword being unsheathed.

"Shall we get going?" the female said, able to recognize each of them based on scent alone. "Where are we going? No one explained that yet." Kuwabara said as Kiei lifted her sword into the air and brought it down swiftly tearing open a portal. "The demon realm of course, we're going to check out their previous hideout first," she said before stepping right through the portal. "Do you guys think this is even safe?" Kuwabara asked, "I mean trusting her if she was so close to them." In response Hiei and Kurama looked at him, the former with a sort of glare. "We have no choice," Kurama said watching Hiei disappear into the portal before he and the other's followed.

* * *

They stepped onto the soft muddy floor of a forest that was thick and eerie, definitely in the demon realm. Kiei stood with her arms folded as each of the males appeared from seemingly nowhere. "So where was this hideout?" Yusuke asked as everyone took in the surroundings. "It's not far from here and quite obvious actually, a small fort of sorts. We shouldn't have to worry about anyone being there, it became a pretty dead spot after the fall of the Radiance because everyone just raided the spoils they had there," Kiei said simply before glancing at Kurama as the male started walking in the direction of the hideout. The rest of the group followed him mostly quietly through the forest before it opened up to a building with tall stone walls and what was once a strong metal door that now hung from it's hinges. "This doesn't look like a safe stronghold," Kuwabara snorted before he was cut off. "I will check it out," Kiei said before running into the building in a flash.

"Someone should follow her," Kuwabara insisted, still untrusting of the female demon. "You're the only one here that doesn't trust her," Kurama said before asking, "Why?" Though before he answered Hiei rolled his eyes before running after Kiei to check the place out as well instead of listening to Kuwabara as he began to explain. "Look I just get a weird feeling about her alright? I know you know her, but some things don't add up. I mean I know there's something going on with her and Hiei, but I feel like she's up to something," he said unable to figure out exactly how to put into words what about the mysterious female he didn't trust. "Come on Kuwabara, we all know those two are doing whatever in their spare time, but we have to trust Hiei, he brought her to us and she was in bad shape. We helped her out, she at least seems like the type to repay her debts," Yusuke said, trying to sense where the two fire demons were in the building. "Kiei is a strange creature Kuwabara," Kurama said looking at him in all seriousness, "But Yusuke is right, we need to trust Hiei's judgment in brining her to our team and she's much different from when she was in the spirit world's most wanted. Whatever happened after she dropped off the map changed her." Kuwabara did not look convinced but Yusuke made a noise and a few moments later Kiei and Hiei were standing near the entrance waving the other's over.

"No one has been here in a long time," Hiei said as the other's approached. "Perhaps we should break up into groups and get a better look of what's left?" Kurama asked the pair. "We only checked for demon's hiding out, getting a better look around would be good," the female of the group replied glancing at the others before turning and walking towards the large building in the center without another word. Kuwabara was still suspicious and the look he gave Kiei as she walked away made that clear enough that Kurama sighed, "I'll go with Kiei and Hiei to the upper floors of the main building, can you two man the ground levels?" The humans nodded and Yusuke was the one to respond, "Guess that would be the best way to split things given numbskulls paranoia." Yusuke seemed to be a little amused, but in all reality he knew that Kuwabara had a good sixth sense about people, which made him wary, but he trusted Kurama and Hiei to be able to handle the new addition to their group. That and this mission would be a lot easier if he put some trust in the only person who knew the ins and outs of the group they were after. With the groups settled the demons moved to catch up with the female before the humans exchanged glances and made their way into the fortress.


End file.
